The House of the Wolfings: A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in Verse — John Shaqi
The House of the Wolfings: A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in VerseMorris, William
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The House of the Wolfings: A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in Verse
Morris, William
Fantasy fiction
Then was she silent for a while, and her tears ceased to flow; but
presently her eyes opened once more, and she lifted up her voice and
cried aloud--
"I see, I see! O Godfolk behold it from aloof,
How the little flames steal flickering along the ridge of the Roof!
They are small and red 'gainst the heavens in the summer afternoon;
But when the day is dusking, white, high shall they wave to the moon.
Lo, the fire plays now on the windows like strips of scarlet cloth
Wind-waved! but look in the night-tide on the onset of its wrath,
How it wraps round the ancient timbers and hides the mighty roof
But lighteth little crannies, so lost and far aloof,
That no man yet of the kindred hath seen them ere to-night,
Since first the builder builded in loving and delight!"
Then again she stayed her speech with weeping and sobbing, but after a
while was still again, and then she spoke pointing toward the roof with
her right hand.
"I see the fire-raisers and iron-helmed they are,
Brown-faced about the banners that their hands have borne afar.
And who in the garth of the kindred shall bear adown their shield
Since the onrush of the Wolfings they caught in the open field,
As the might of the mountain lion falls dead in the hempen net?
O Wolfings, long have ye tarried, but the hour abideth yet.
What life for the life of the people shall be given once for all,
What sorrow shall stay sorrow in the half-burnt Wolfing Hall?
There is nought shall quench the fire save the tears of the Godfolk's
kin,
And the heart of the life-delighter, and the life-blood cast therein."
Then once again she fell silent, and her eyes closed again, and the slow
tears gushed out from them, and she sank down sobbing on the grass, and
little by little the storm of grief sank and her head fell back, and she
was as one quietly asleep. Then the carline hung over her and kissed her
and embraced her; and then through her closed eyes and her slumber did
the Hall-Sun see a marvel; for she who was kissing her was young in
semblance and unwrinkled, and lovely to look on, with plenteous long hair
of the hue of ripe barley, and clad in glistening raiment such as has
been woven in no loom on earth.
And indeed it was the Wood-Sun in the semblance of a crone, who had come
to gather wisdom of the coming time from the foreseeing of the Hall-Sun;
since now at last she herself foresaw nothing of it, though she was of
the kindred of the Gods and the Fathers of the Goths. So when she had
heard the Hall-Sun she deemed that she knew but too well what her words
meant, and what for love, what for sorrow, she grew sick at heart as she
heard them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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